Good day to you, Friends!
There's something that I would like to share with you that I have come across on more than one occasion here on SG. It has to do with comments that are rude or disrespectful or most of the time are in poor taste. I'm all for freedom of speech and speaking your mind, but social etiquette has a spot at the table, too. It's something that I have noticed that seems to be the norm, not specifically here on SG, but in most forms of social media. I'm tying this in to more than just, "you should see my wiener!". I'm not certain when I started noticing it, but once I did, it was everywhere. I find it disheartening. Perhaps it has to do with Dr. Spock saying it's not okay to beat your kids at one point in time. Maybe it's one of those tell-tale signs that I'm starting to get a little long in the tooth. Maybe I'll start yelling this or that about "those young whipper snappers". Heh. Hell, I hope not. Maybe it's just the differences in products of environments and upbringings. As a youth, I could totally expect to catch whatever happened to be handy, should I overstep my boundaries while edging towards being unruly. There were those extra special occasions when I had the pleasure of choosing the tool of my punishment, which usually that included picking my own switch. I digress. I won't go into some long winded rant about it, but it's something that I felt that I had to speak up about.
Moving on now that I have that off my chest. I think I should talk about music and what role it's played in my life. There's not really much that I won't listen to. I have to confess that I do lean towards rock and roll. Sometimes there's no substitute for a little Kansas, Led Zeppelin, or some old school Black Sabbath. Momma was a rocker through and through. Being the product of a single parent home for many years, her choice of music had a significant impact on what I listened to years later. I think one of the more significant moments that really stuck with me was when I was around 13. I was fortunate to have a record player coupled with an old Kenwood rack stereo system. I had 2 Utah Jazz speakers, 2 ACS speakers and 2 Bose series 9001 (iirc). Along with this, I had several tomato crates with records in them. On this particular day, I chose to listen to Black Sabbath's self titled album. I pulled it out of the sleeve, cleaned it, and dropped the needle on the record. The beginning of the song, with the sound of rain falling added a chill to the air. Apparently my room was already a little chilly and I didn't notice. The guitar riffs start shortly after which Ozzy's begins with the first line. Goose bumps. Still gives me goose bumps when I think about it. Then there's the Immigrant Song from Led Zeppelin. I still have a hard time sitting still when that song starts. There's many others, but I think that those two come to mind first when I think about songs that had an impact.
Of course there was the phenom that became Rap music. With artists like N.W.A., Ice Cube, Ice-T, and Too Short, it was so radically different from what I had been exposed to up to that point, it was hard to not listen to it. I still dabble with it from time to time, but it didn't have the staying power for me personally. After my own personal Rap craze, I shifted towards electronica. The first tape that really started it for me was Techmaster P.E.B. At the time I was really into building car stereos and this was the perfect choice for all of those cubic inches of woofers. There were others after, but that was what shifted my tastes more towards that particular genre. Around the same time, House Music started to be a thing, and of course, I jumped on that bandwagon. I grew up a short distance from Chicago, so I would make weekly trips to an independent record store called The Grammaphone. It was a small hole in the wall place that had a lot of DJ direct cds you could pick up. At this particular time there wasn't really a presence of techno or rave music. At least, not one that I was aware of. Eventually, I discovered Trance and became completely enthralled with it after living in Germany for several years. I still enjoy it from time to time, but I've moved on yet again. Skrillex and his take on dubstep hooked me right away. Sure there's other artists, but that dude has some serious talent. I can't think of a song/album that I don't truly enjoy. Throughout all of the genre jumping there's artists like Seether, Staind, System of a Down, Type O Negative, and Five Finger Death Punch that stand out as go to bands. So as it stands today I would say that I have a foot on the metal oriented side of music and the electronica oriented side.
I suppose that I drifted off of my initial point of describing the role that music has played in my life. I think anyone and everyone has an amount of trials and tribulations that they go through. Without that, I don't believe you could actually call it life. Throughout my own personal dark times, music has helped me gain perspective, focus, and to center myself when everything collapsed around me. Sure, music wasn't just there for me when life was shit, it's been there during the good times. Unfortunately, there's been so much more dark versus good. But, when it was good, I think one band stands out and that band is Clutch. Something about a jam band that goes hand in hand with feeling good about the current state of things.
For those that managed to stay focused enough to read this through to this point, I would like to offer an apology. I'm not a novelist, or much of a writer. I suppose that some of what is listed above may be jumbled and bounce around a lot. If you managed to get to this point, I applaud your patience. With that, I'm going to pop on some Clutch and move on with my day.
Cheers!
Tae
